Panasonic Holdings plans to increase production of electric vehicle batteries it supplies to Tesla by about 10 percent by 2024. Panasonic is reportedly increasing production of the 2170 cylindrical cells that power Tesla's flagship Model 3.
In July, Panasonic announced that it would build a second electric vehicle battery factory in Kansas, but the plant is not expected to be operational until 2024 at the earliest.
During this period, Panasonic plans to meet growing demand for batteries by dispatching production supervisors from Japan to existing U.S. factories to increase production efficiency. As of June, dozens of people had been dispatched to Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to provide technical assistance and training. The factory is a joint venture between Tesla and Panasonic.
Their task is to increase battery production by about 10% by reducing equipment problems, which is equivalent to adding a new production line. The plant's final annual capacity is expected to reach 43 GWh.
Tesla opened a new electric vehicle factory in Texas in April this year and plans to increase global electric vehicle production to 20 million by 2030. And battery shortages could be a major hurdle in EV production. Panasonic already makes batteries for Tesla at its factory in Osaka, Japan, where there are many engineers.
